Package making – Methods – Forming or partial forming a receptacle and subsequent filling
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-21
2001-07-24
Hughes, S. Thomas (Department: 3726)
Package making
Methods
Forming or partial forming a receptacle and subsequent filling
C053S567000, C053S575000, C053S576000, C053S577000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06263643
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to elasticated netting, and more particularly to the automation of the procedure of loading tubes with the netting in a folded condition.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Elasticated netting is produced as a continuous sleeve which, in its unstressed condition, is only a few centimetres wide. It is used to enclose products such as joints of meat, being expanded to surround a product so that when released it lightly grips the product, the cut-off ends of the sleeve folding themselves around the ends of the product. Elasticated netting thus holds together a body which might otherwise tend to fall apart, such as a joint of meat during cooking, as well as assisting in such processes as the curing of ham.
The commonest way to locate netting around products is first of all to store the netting in a folded condition on a tube the inner diameter of which is large enough for the products to be netted to pass down it. This tube is of course of considerably greater diameter than the unstressed sleeve of netting. A means is employed to grip the netting and then move it from one end to the other of the tube so that the netting folds on the tube like a badly rucked sock. When no more netting can be stored on the tube the sleeve is cut behind the tube and the tube can then be taken away for use in enclosing products. In this way, of course, the length of netting stored on a tube is a multiple of the length of the tube. Products are passed through the tube and as they emerge they draw off enough of the stored netting to enclose them, whereupon the sleeve is cut behind each product.
An example of such a gripping means takes the form of an annular array of fingers surrounding the tube. The fingers are lightly spring-loaded so that their tips will touch the tube, extending therefrom at an acute angle. When the tube is reciprocated axially of the array of fingers the fingers will, on an upstroke of the tube, engage holes in the net and drag it toward the opposite end of the tube. On an downstroke of the tube the fingers will ride over the net. Thus the net is progressively folded along the length of the tube.
The use of the equipment of the immediately preceding paragraph is labour intensive and time consuming. First an operator must take a tube and expand the sleeve around one end of it. He must then pass the tube through the array of fingers until it locates accurately on a platform. Once the tube is loaded with netting he must remove it from the finger array and cut off the sleeve behind the tube.
A principal object of the present invention is to improve upon the above procedure by speeding it up and automating it, thus reducing both labour costs and the down time which currently occurs while awaiting the loaded tubes.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention there is provided apparatus for the automated loading of elasticated netting in a folded condition onto storage tubes, the apparatus comprising a work station, means for supplying the netting in the form of a continuous sleeve in an unstressed condition toward the work station, means for delivering the storage tubes in sequence to the work station, spreader means for expanding a leading end of the sleeve to a diameter equal to or greater than that of a tube at the work station, said spreader means being displaceable along an axis generally perpendicular to the work station, finger means arranged about said axis, each finger being movable between an operative position in which it may contact a tube at the work station and an inoperative position displaced laterally from said tube, and means for relatively reciprocatively displacing a tube at the work station and said finger means generally along said axis with the finger means in said operative position such that repeated, reciprocative relative movement of the tube and finger means will store in a folded condition on the tube netting introduced to the tube by the spreader means and engaged by the finger means, the finger means being subsequently displaceable to the inoperative position and movable with the spreader means along said axis away from the work station to allow the sleeve to be cut near to the loaded tube and to permit removal of the latter from the work station and its replacement by an unloaded tube.
Preferably the spreader means comprises a shaft portion and a head portion of greater diameter than the shaft portion, the head portion tapering to the shaft portion over a generally frusto conical surface, the diameter of the shaft portion being such that in use the sleeve may pass along it generally in an unstressed condition and means being provided to grasp the shaft portion around the sleeve for purposes of holding the spreader means in an elevated position when a loaded tube is to be removed from the work station.
The finger means preferably comprises an annular array of pivotally mounted fingers spring loaded to extend inwardly of the array and a control ring relatively movable axially of the array and disposed to abut the fingers to displace the same from the operative to the inoperative position when the array of fingers is moved away from the work station.
The head portion preferably has cut-away regions around a cylindrical portion of its length to facilitate engagement of the fingers with netting passed around said cylindrical portion.
Means is preferably provided for holding the spreader means and the finger means in an intermediate position in which the spreader means is in proximity to an upper end of an upright tube at the work station and the finger means is in an operative position with the fingers thereof in contact with the spreader means, the spreader means and finger means are preferably jointly displaceable upwardly from said intermediate position to a raised position in which the finger means is in the inoperative position and the spreader means is above said tube upper end and means is preferably provided for relatively reciprocating the finger means and the workstation along said axis while the spreader means and finger means are in said intermediate position so that the finger means moves relatively along said tube to draw netting over the spreader means and fold it upon said tube.
The finger means may be mounted below a first plate the position of which relative to a second plate is controlled by first ram means and second ram means may be provided for reciprocating the second plate along said axis relative to the work station while a predetermined relationship is maintained between the first and second plates by the first ram means.
Abutment means may be provided on the second plate to arrest upward movement of the control ring as the finger means is raised from the lowered to the raised position by the first ram means, thereby causing abutment of the control ring with the fingers and displacement of the latter to the inoperative position.
Means may be provided for reciprocating the work station toward and away from the finger means.
Conveyor means may be disposed laterally of the work station to convey unloaded tubes in an upright position in sequence to a position laterally alongside the work station and pusher means may be provided operable transversely of the conveyor means to push a leading one of the unloaded tubes onto the work station thereby simultaneously displacing a loaded tube from the work station.
Gripper means may be located to engage between them a rectangular base flange of an upright tube positioned on the workstation, said gripper means being actuable to grip the flange when the tube is so located and to release the flange when the tube is to be displaced off the workstation.
Cutter means is preferably provided operable to cut the sleeve from a loaded tube at the work station when the finger means and spreader means are moved away from the loaded tube, the cutter means being movable through the space vacated by the finger means.
A dolly may be removably locatable on the upper end of a said tube at the workstation, said dolly and the spreader means having male and female form
Kovacs Zoli
Revill Stuart Baird
Akerman & Senterfitt
Compton Eric
Hughes S. Thomas
Trunature Ltd
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